Scheimer, a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon University, won a Daytime Emmy in 1975 for Star Trek and received four Daytime Emmy nominations for Best Children’s and Animated Series for his work on Star Trek and Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. He received a primetime Emmy nom for the 1977 production Fat Albert Christmas Special. In 2003, ASIFA-Hollywood gave him an Annie for Special Achievement in Animation.

Bummer. He was responsible for some very entertaining work. Judging from the interviews on the DVDs for Space Academy, Ark II, and Jason of Star Command, he was a really interesting and engaging guy who I think i would have liked to have met in person.

It's quite a loss. Scheimer and his colleagues probably had more influence on me in my childhood than any other non-family member except Gene Roddenberry. Filmation's shows helped shape my values and beliefs.

My sympathies also go out to my colleague Andy Mangels, a former Star Trek novelist who also produced the Filmation DVDs released in recent years and wrote books about Filmation and Scheimer, including the recent biography Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Andy was a good friend of Scheimer's and I know this is a major loss for him.

It's quite a loss. Scheimer and his colleagues probably had more influence on me in my childhood than any other non-family member except Gene Roddenberry. Filmation's shows helped shape my values and beliefs.

My sympathies also go out to my colleague Andy Mangels, a former Star Trek novelist who also produced the Filmation DVDs released in recent years and wrote books about Filmation and Scheimer, including the recent biography Lou Scheimer: Creating the Filmation Generation. Andy was a good friend of Scheimer's and I know this is a major loss for him.

Click to expand...

Agree.

Lou Scheimer's Filmation shows made every Saturday morning enjoyable for me as a boy in the '70s.

^I appreciate your tribute avatar, J.T.B. That "credit wheel" was an unforgettable signature, and is probably a large part of why we became so aware of the names Scheimer and Prescott as we watched their shows.

This is very sad. I just read Lou's (with Andy Mangels help) memoirs a couple months back. And even when discussing shows that were well past my first cartoon-watching years, it was always an engaging read. I recommend it highly!

^I appreciate your tribute avatar, J.T.B. That "credit wheel" was an unforgettable signature, and is probably a large part of why we became so aware of the names Scheimer and Prescott as we watched their shows.

Yeah, I always figured that was part of the reason for it. But it was certainly a memorable solution. I think that as a child, I came to think of their shows as "Lou Scheimer-Norm Prescott shows" (not necessarily in that order) before I became aware of the name Filmation.

Scheimer was also one of the few who kept animation in this country at a cost to himself. Whatever you can say about the quality of the animation, I always found Filmation shows to have a heart and soul not many children's programs can match.

Hell, the Star Trek stuff was so good it was pretty much like a fourth season.

First, whatever the artistic limitations, Scheimer gave Fontana and Roddenberry complete creative control. Other studios would have given us youngster Kirk and Spock at the Academy, and/or wacky sidekicks.

Second, in reading interviews with Scheimer, it's very clear that he just plain got a hell of a kick out of doing TAS. He was so excited the few times he was able to assemble the entire cast for voice work. He couldn't resist doing a few voices himself.

One more thing: Trek on a budget? TAS sure was. But it was produced entirely in the U.S. by union animators. These days all the real animation work is shipped overseas.